Best Guitar Chords

Something that I often find people looking for are the best guitar chords. They might be trying to look for the best guitar chords so that they can play a certain song, or they might just be looking for a few chords to learn so that they have the basics down and can move on from there.

In my mind there really are no set “best guitar chords”. There are few chords that most guitar instructors often teach to beginners first, but in the end it doesn’t really matter. So in order to understand chords better I’ve outlined some basic information below.

Well, basically the chords main aim in music is to provide support for the main melody line in a song or tune. It acts as a sort of back-up singer. You know the way there’s usually one “famous” singer out the front and then some “unknown” backing singers down the back? Well the melody line is the “famous” singer, and the chords are the “backing”.

This rule holds true for pretty much every style or genre of music. Whether you choose to play Rock, Pop, Classical, Country or even Orchestral music – the chords and melody will have a very similar relationship.

How are chords constructed?

In its most basic form, a chord is simply a set of notes (which have been taken from a scale), and are then all played at the same time – rather than individually.

Because there are so many chords to choose from, it can sometimes be quite confusing to see exactly which chord fits where. I suppose this is why people like looking for the best guitar chords – they hope there’s some sort of magic formula or something.

The real truth is that there is a formula, but I wouldn’t really consider it to be magic!
Let’s tak a look at the C Major scale to see if we can figure out where the individual chord names originate from…

Here’s a C Major Guitar Scale:C D E F G A B C
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

As you’ve probably already guessed from the numbers underneath, there is a total of 7 notes in this scale.
This simplest chord we can create from this scale (withouth it sounding terrible), is the chord of C Major.

The C Major guitar chord uses the first, third and fifth notes of the C Major scale. Playing all three of these notes simultaneusly will amazingly give you the chord of C Major!

It really is as simple as that. Put a few notes together and you have a chord. Put a few of the best guitar chords together and you have a song!

With the above information in mind I’ve created a guitar chord sheet for you with 6 of the best guitar chords in the key of C major. Playing these chords in any given order should allow you to create a song. Just mix up the rhythms a little and add a melody and you should be good to go! Good luck!